10.25.2016

SISTER VIRGINS' BIRTHDAY!

This week was a different pace! We did a lot of finding and we found some pretty cool potentials but we aren't teaching anyone yet! :) It has been good though! It is cool how you can just follow the spirit and find new people who are ready to hear the gospel at this time. I don't have to much to talk about this week so I guess I will just go through some random questions that everyone always asks! :)

What does your average day look like?
6:30 AM - wake up and work out! :) Sister Virgin has T-25 workouts so we have been doing those. They are killing me! haha!! :)

7:00 AM- shower and get ready for the day! Somewhere in there I eat breakfast which is either cereal, oatmeal or yogurt and granola! :)

8:00 AM- Start Personal Studies! Which are never long enough! I love personal study! Something that I have been studying about recently is the apostasy! I think it is so perfect and interesting how it all happened and that we had to go through an apostasy to really appreciate the Restoration! I love it! I am also at the Title of Liberty chapters in the Book of Mormon and those have been a blast to read through! The other day I was humming the Superman theme song cuz I think it would be perfect background music for the introduction of Captain Moroni! haha :)

9:00 AM- Companion study! We go through our lesson plans and make calls for the day!

10:00 AM- Hopefully out the door unless your in Syracuse and have to make 100 calls and figure out exchanges with 6 sets of Sisters! But I love it!
*Then for the rest of the day we go and see less-actives and investigators! or do service! :)

5:00 PM- Dinner!

6:00 PM- Out the door working with investigators and recent converts!! :) Or if we have no set appointments we are tracting :)

8:00 PM- we usually go downtown or to a street called Westcott to OYM. It is pretty fun! :) OYM- opening your mouth

9:00 PM- Home doing planning for the next day and then writing in journals and going to bed!!

That's about it but it is super fun! :) I am absolutely loving this area and the people here!! :)

This week we did have a ward party Trunk or Treat and that was pretty fun! Sister Virgin came up with the idea to be Thing 1 and Thing 2 and everyone was pretty proud of us! haha!

10.18.2016

IS IT TRUE? AM I REALLY STAYING IN AN AREA FOR 3 TRANSFERS! Well Brothers and Sisters it is True (all of it.. especially the Gospel ;)) I am so excited!! Sister Virgin and I get to be together for one more at least! Which is great because last transfer was full of so much excitement that we need more time to get to know each other even more. :)

This week has been great! We have been trying to get in contact with all of the new member move-in's and also the former investigators. We are just trying to get a really solid group of potentials investigators who are ready for baptism! And members who are ready to come back home :) It has been really fun to find those people who use to know the truth find it again. One of the first things they usually say is "we missed it". I was reading the Bible the other day and I was reading in Matthew 14 where Christ walks on water and tells Peter to come out to see him. Well something that really stood out to me is we are all like Peter at sometime we follow the Savior with great faith seeing miracles such as walking on the water but as soon as we look away from the Savior, we too like Peter, sink. We must keep our eyes fixed on the Savior to continue walking on water and witnessing miracles. However, it is not this part of the story that really impressed me it is what Christ does soon after in verse 31 Christ stretches forth his hand immediately, catching Peter. We need to be more like Christ in this story. We need to immediately stretch forth our hands when those around us have looked away from the Savior and are drowning. We must catch them before they drown below our reach. When do we do it? IMMEDIATELY. Whenever we receive a prompting to rise to action and stretch forth our hand to maybe a Less-Active member, an investigator, a former investigator, an Old Friend, or even a very active member. We must do it immediately and save them from the shafts and whirlwinds that face us all. :) I know that this has been a principle I have been striving to focus on these past few weeks and we have seen so many miracles by doing it.

We were able to go and visit a family that moved into the ward recently from Liverpool last night. We had tried them multiple times before and so had everyone else, but no one ever got in contact with them. So we went and we caught them. She expressed great appreciation and gratitude for us coming by. She said that when she went to the door and saw us she felt that great love that she has for missionaries billow up inside her and she knew we came at the perfect time. It was amazing. The spirit was so strong and she said she is going to make it to church this Sunday. They just were unaware of where it was and they didn't know anyone.. all we had to do was drop by and they were back walking on the water. :) It is amazing!! We had this experience many times this week! People are just waiting to be saved :) We just need to follow our impressions and do it :

We also had an AMAZING lesson with Nancy this week! We have been having the prompting to watch Joseph Smith the Prophet of the Restoration with her for a while now but we were just waiting for the right time to do so. Well we asked her if we could do it this week and we watched with her the 1 hour 29 minute long version. I wasn't quite sure why we felt like we needed her to watch the long version but we did it anyway and by the end Nancy's heart had softened 10 times. The spirit was sooo thick in the lesson you could hardly breathe. She said "I understand now why you guys keep emphasizing reading the Book of Mormon. I am really going to try hard this week to receive an answer." It was amazing and she was prepared enough that we were able to talk about the Temple, Tithing, Eternal Families, the Preisthood and The Book of Mormon. She saw that everyone she knew in this life that has been Mormon has been a Mormon in the office, at home and in church. She was really impressed! It was amazing!! I just know that she is going to be so much more prepared now to progress and willing to accept the invitation of baptism. I am SOOOOO excited!! We are seeing constant miracles in this area. I LOVE IT! :)

We also did get to go to the temple this week! I LOVE THE TEMPLE! It was so great to be inside. I felt the spirit so strongly as we did names of ancestors of Recent Converts in this mission and we were able to see our Recent Convert as well as another Recent Convert of the Elmira Sister's at the temple. This mission is growing and a lot of our Recent Converts are seeing the importance of the temple it was such a sweet moment to be in the temple amongst some of the sweetest new members. :) I don't know if I will be able to leave New York everyone... this place has become Home and it is full of so many people that I love and hold so dear to my heart. It truly is sacred ground.

I love you all! Have a great week!!

P.S. these picture are from a random "pull over the car" lunch break adventure :)

10.10.2016

Alright everyone, I don't think I bragged enough about Ariel last week considering your responses. I LOVE ARIEL! :) She is amazing! So Ariel's family asked her to investigate the Church for one year before she made the decision to be baptized. Ariel knew she wanted to be baptized by week 3. She had been attending church for months before then and she was just ready to be a member. For this year Ariel has given a talk in the YSA Branch, helped in lessons, was assigned Visiting Teaching, participated in ALL the commandments (including tithing). Ariel has been a "member" this whole year. She practically teaches us in lessons and comes with us to many lessons. She is just amazing and it was such a great privileged to be one of the missionaries who taught her.

Ariel's baptism was beautiful! Nothing went wrong it was a miracle and I know that it was because Ariel worked so hard to get to this point. Her family came and they were very supportive, her mom even gave the closing prayer! It was sooo great!!! I absolutely was thrilled!! :) I got to talk with Ariel's dad for a while and he was such a sweet man, we had great conversation. I know that Ariel is going to be a great example for her family. I am so proud of her. Sister Virgin and I were getting some last minute things done before the baptism started and we got in and sat down and Ariel is just bawling, "happy tears" she said. I know that she worked so hard and had to withstand so many different trials and challenges and I am so proud of her. She made it! After she was confirmed on Sunday she bore her testimony and told us all that she feels so much better, she finally feels like a member. She got her recommend for the temple and is headed there this week :) She is a great example to me and I am so grateful I was able to be there with her.

Goodbye Greg!!

Greg is in UTAH!! :) and still California bound! but we are so excited for him! We saw many miracles this week! So... something happened on Monday and it was not looking like he was going to be able to make the trip. He had no wheelchair to make it in. So... we went on a hunt. The ward went on a hunt and then all the sudden we receive a call, a wheelchair has been found by a sister in a neighboring ward.. which is not really all that neighboring here. She told us that she would bring it to him around 3:00. So we call Greg and tell him the news. As I start to tell Greg that we found a wheelchair and he is going to be able to make the trip.. I am getting emotional. Sister Virigin is getting emotional and so is Greg. We are all just so grateful. I literally witnessed a miracle. It is amazing what we are all able to accomplish when we rely wholly upon the Lord. So the time comes that we bring him up the wheelchair and we see it and it is looking really small... It doesn't look like it is going to work.. as we bring it up to Greg.. Sister Virgin and I are just freaking out.. thinking that it is not going to work and that Greg isn't going to make it to California.. we are getting so depressed. I show Greg the chair and he says "that is not going to work" but the weirdest part is he is still smiling. I am about to CRY and curl into a ball and Greg is smiling. He explains that the hospital, last minute granted him permission to take the chair that they have loaned him. WHAT? They were completely against that less than 24 hours ago! Why now? I am not going to act like I know what God was thinking in this situation but I don't think that Greg would have gotten all that he needed to get done if it weren't for the wheelchair that was found from the ward. I also know that Greg and I needed to see that this was God's work and he was going to take care of us if we will just have faith and listen to him. :) I am so happy for Greg to get out to California so that he can impress the ward there!! :)

Working hard, living the dream!

DANG I AM PROUD OF THESE CONVERTS!!! :) The Lord is truly working miracles here in the 'CUSE :) I love it here!! Now for the rest of our week! We are just working hard to find those elect, to help bring people into the church! I heard something really cool a little bit ago and it has stuck with me.. "We are no longer planting seeds in this church, the harvest has come and it is time for the reaping." We have to be bold!! We are bringing those last sheaves in now!! We have to work hard to bring as many as we can :) I am so grateful that I have this time to work in the Lord's vineyard!! We are all entrusted with some area of his vineyard, are we doing all we can and making him proud of our work! :) I love thinking about how much responsibility God really has given us! We ALL have to work together in this work or we will not do our job! :)

10.05.2016

This week was great! It has been chuck full of AWESOME spiritual experiences! :)

So Greg is still doing so well! He is working toward preparing himself to receive the Priesthood. Which would be awesome! He also is working to pack himself up and move. Which is depressing. It has been such a pleasure to be a part of Greg's conversion. He is the first person that I have been able to watch the full conversion story play out. It started with the Headquarter Referral to that first visit, to him accepting the invitation to be baptized, to the baptism! It has been such a blessing to be apart of his whole conversion. I am so blessed. He did it all on his own though. It was all because he grew a deeply rooted testimony of prayer and The Book of Mormon. Greg is amazing. :) So grateful for the chance I had to meet him!

Ariel!! Her baptism is on SATURDAY!! :) We are so excited for her! She is sooooo ready! She has been coming to lessons with us recently and our investigators ask her more questions then they ask us ;) haha! She is just amazing! We got to watch conference with her and her house on Sunday and it was so much fun! She made us Nacho's we snuggled up on the couch and we all laughed and cried over conference. I love Ariel, she has definitely become a great friend! :)

We had Exchanges with the Norwood Sister's this week!

S'MORES' FOR EVERYONE!

It was great! Sister Anderson and I got to be together!! Sister Anderson came out with me so that was fun and now she is training! CRAZY! We are not the baby missionaries any more! It will be really exciting to see where our missions go! Also, thanks for the s'mores kit mom! We had some great fun with that! Although, you should see 4 mormon girls trying to work a lighter. WE DON'T USE THESE THINGS! haha!! :) It was so much fun!

We also had MLC this week which is the Mission Leadership Council! It was a lot of fun it was Sister Virgin's first as an STL and we got to drive in with the Zone Leaders it was a lot of fun! It was cool though because that was Friday and it was really spiritually uplifting! All about having more faith and teaching with the spirit! Which has really blessed our missionary work this week and then it was a great spiritual kick start to....

GENERAL CONFERENCE!!! Guys!! Conference is just the best event ever!! It is so amazing! It's awesome how we can go with any question and have faith and it will be answered! I know that mine were as I asked them this weekend! I felt like a huge focus I saw was the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Learning more about it! Which is something I like to call "getting back to the basics". The Gospel is SO simple! We do not need to complicate it! When we get back to the basics of Praying with Faith, Repenting, Partaking of the Sacrament (and preparing ourselves to partake of it), and listen to the Holy Ghost we will be given the strength that we need to Endure to the End and not only Endure but to Endure it Well! :) I love this gospel it is so simple! If you will only have Faith, Repent, be Baptized and Renew your covenant through the sacrament, Receive the Holy Ghost and then Listen to it and keep Enduring to the End. We will make it to the Celestial kingdom! That is the formula! That is the way! God isn't asking too much of us! He sacrificed his Son... what are we willing to sacrifice for him?

I loved Conference and I love all of you! Hope you have a great week!!